HHS Issues New Guidance On Kids’ Insurance Policies
Health insurers can’t have different rules for when individual policies for children with medical problems than for healthy kids are sold, the Department of Health and Human Services said today.
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Fear + Worry = Fewer Kids Getting Vaccinated
After years of steady progress, the percentage of 2 year olds in private health plans being immunized dropped last year, while it went up for Medicaid patients.
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Women’s Health Groups Call For Free Rx Birth Control
Planned Parenthood and other groups are launching a campaign to include prescription contraception as part of the preventive services required in the new health law.
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Opinion Column
Changes Wrought By Health Reform? Well, Maybe Not
The Obama administration has issued McDonald’s (among others) a waiver on some regulations in the health law. But that hasn’t stopped the McDonald’s story from becoming propaganda in the campaign to discredit and, eventually, repeal health care reform.
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Hospitals Lure Doctors Away From Private Practice
One in six doctors works for a hospital, and the number is quickly growing. Both sides benefit: hospitals get a steady stream of patients and doctors say they can practice medicine without worrying about the hassles of running a private practice.
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Studies Highlight High Medicare Costs For People In Nursing Homes
People who live in long-term care are much more likely to be sent to the hospital, sometimes unnecessarily, which can harm patients and drive up Medicare costs.
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A Hole In The Safety Net: Texas Medicaid Cuts Threaten Services For Disabled
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for some disabled people who are waiting to receive services in private homes, group homes or other community settings.
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Open Insurance Season May Bring Sticker Shock
Workers are likely to see increases in premiums, deductibles and co-payments, as well as changes in dependent coverage and wellness options.
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Transcript: Health On The Hill – October 11, 2010
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted approximately 30 waivers to employers, insurers and unions that will allow them to offer limited benefit, or “mini-med,” health insurance plans.
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Health On The Hill – October 11, 2010
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted approximately 30 waivers to employers, insurers and unions that will allow them to offer limited benefit, or “mini-med,” health insurance plans.
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Opinion Column
The Insurance Straw Man
It is no doubt useful politically for the administration to set up the private health insurance industry as its foil in this struggle. Many Americans have low regard for insurance companies. But this is largely a diversionary tactic on the part of [HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius].
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Health Care Interests Push To Make ACOs Pay Off For Them
From medical device makers to pharmacists to labor unions, a host of organizations want to ensure that accountable care organizations expand their business and influence.
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Are ‘Mini-Med’ Plan Waivers A Good Idea?
Mark Rukavina of The Access Project and Neil Trautwein of the National Retail Federation discuss the Obama administration’s relaxation of the health law’s requirements for insurance plans for some employers.
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Health Care: Run On It or Against It?
Republicans think they have a winning issue in health care reform, calling for its repeal and slamming the new law as big government gone haywire-even before most of its provisions have taken effect. A new poll suggests it’s not so clear-cut, and some Democrats seem to agree.
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Health Reform Facing Early Legal Tests
A number of interest groups, state officials and ordinary citizens are seeking to have the health care law struck down in federal court, and action is heating up this week.
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Opinion Column
Reminding Ourselves What Has Gone Right With The Health Law
It will take years to make the law’s most important changes. But by the time they are in place, if all goes well, most Americans truly will be better off. The early stages are encouraging.
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Feds Reassure Hospitals, Doctors On Cooperation Through ACOs
The agencies that oversee doctors and hospitals promised they will give unified guidance on how medical providers can form “accountable care organizations” without violating antitrust regulations. ACOs are a key part of the new health law.
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Health Care Reform: Prove it Works and CMS Will Pay
When it comes to Medicare, where it is everybody’s money and overpriced technologies are a significant factor undermining the senior citizen health care program’s long-term financial viability, paying for products that don’t deliver better is out.
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New Laws Expand Mental Health Coverage
Insurance coverage of mental illness and addiction problems often is skimpier than for physical illness. But that is changing with the mental health parity law that took effect earlier this year and the new health overhaul.
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Nurses’ Push For Bigger Role Gets Powerful Ally
An Institute of Medicine report says nurses should take on a larger role in providing health care and calls for removal of government restrictions, which doctors have repeatedly opposed.
